Listen up, you're out! Jacob’s the latest to be jocked off

By Marcus Townend for the Daily Mail
Updated: 21:50 EST, 1 January 2009

Daryl Jacob has been axed as The Listener’s rider after falling from him in the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown on Sunday.

The rider confirmed on Thursday he had been told he would no longer be riding the talented grey.

It is believed Andrew McNamara is in contention to take over when the 10-year-old, trained in Dorset by Nick Mitchell, runs in the Irish Hennessy at Leopardstown on February 8.

Bay of plenty: Calgary Bay was at his best at Cheltenham on Wednesday

It is not the first time the personnel associated with The Listener has changed.

Jacob took over the mount in December 2006 after owner Ray Humphreys, who races the gelding under the Old Moss Farm banner, sacked Andrew Thornton.

Then, last year, he switched the gelding to Mitchell from the stable of Robert Alner and wife Sally, while Robert continued his long rehabilitation from neck and spinal injuries suffered in a car crash in November 2007.

Jacob’s first ride on The Listener brought victory in the 2006 Lexus Chase.

He also won the 2007 Grade One John Durkan Chase and the 2008 Grade One Irish Hennessy in 11 rides.

But this year, under Mitchell’s care, The Listener has failed to win in three runs, culminating in Sunday’s exit at the second fence.

Jacob said: ‘It’s a big disappointment but I won three Grade Ones on him when he was with Robert and Sally Alner.

‘That’s the way it is. Racing goes on and you don’t look back.

'As Sally has always said, worse things happen at sea. The best horses can fall and the fences are there to be jumped.’

Meanwhile, Henrietta Knight can make big plans for giant novice chaser Calgary Bay after the 11-4 shot and Tony McCoy beat Kicks For Free comfortably in the Grade Two Dipper Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham.

But they might not necessarily include the Festival in March.

Knight said: ‘In the two-mile Arkle Chase they might do him for toe and I’m not keen to go three miles in the RSA Chase at this stage.

'The two-and-a-half mile Grade One at Aintree is an option.’

The immediate future for Big Buck’s lies over hurdles after the gelding, who unseated Sam Thomas at the last fence in the Hennessy Gold Cup, landed the Unicoin Homes Handicap Hurdle under Ruby Walsh.

Paul Nicholls, not exactly short of staying chasers, will steer him to the Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham before a possible tilt at the Ladbrokes World Hurdle, for which he is 14-1 with the sponsors.

Lough Derg is 25-1 for that race after a trademark rally under Tom Scudamore edged out No Refuge in the Steel Plate and Sections Hurdle to give trainer David Pipe a much-needed winner.

• The Queen started the New Year in style when Midsummer Magic, her first runner of 2009, won the maiden hurdle at Fakenham yesterday. It promises to be a happy new year for racing’s most famous owner as she hopes to win the Derby this summer with her Royal Ascot winner Free Agent.

• Alan King, successful with the Charlie Huxley-ridden Awesome George in the opener at Cheltenham, could send Nenuphar Collonges back over hurdles after his jumping let him down when seventh in the Welsh National. King said: ‘We might qualify him for the Pertemps Hurdle Final at the Festival, but something like the Midlands National might also suit him.’ The trainer’s Halcon Genelardais, third in the Welsh National, may go direct to the Cheltenham Gold Cup.